The present invention is in the field of utilization of natural resources of sunlight and water to attract and kill mosquito.
In the whole contents of presented specifications and claims, the term of xe2x80x9ca group of solar cellsxe2x80x9d means a number of solar cells which is from one to any greater number, and the term of xe2x80x9ca group of rechargeable batteriesxe2x80x9d means a number of rechargeable batteries which is from one to any greater number.
Previous invented devices and current market available products of mosquito control use variety of approaches to attract mosquitoes. Carbon dioxide, octenol, and infrared are common mosquito attraction sources in these previous patented devices and current products in market. Using high voltage electric grid to kill mosquito is a kind of common practice in these patented devices and current products. However, processes of usage of these invented devices and current products present certain disadvantages in the aspects of convenience, cost, safety, and environment. When these invented devices and current products are to be used, to obtain the required carbon dioxide, a substance such as. propane has to be purchased in a specific place and has to be burned in use; to obtain the octenol, a can of compressed octenol has to be purchased in a specific place; and to obtain the infrared, an electrical heating device and associated outdoor electrical cord and outdoor electrical outlet have to be used. Although using solar cell to power electric grid of mosquito killing are mentioned in previous patents, how to use solar cell effectively and efficiently and how to use solar cell to power the electric grid beyond the limit of daytime in a mosquito killing system still keep challenging.
Sunlight and water are the most conveniently and economically obtainable environment friendly natural resources for most people in residential areas. Solely using natural resources of sunlight and water in an apparatus to attract and kill mosquitoes in a convenient and economical way should result in a mosquito control device that would provide more advantages in the aspects of convenience, cost, safety, and environment than the previous invented devices and current products in market do. Solely utilizing natural resources of sunlight and water to perform functions of mosquito attraction and killing in ingenious ways is the pursuit of this presented invention.
Sunlight and water are the most conveniently and economically obtainable natural resources for common people. Sunlight and water are the most environment friendly natural resources to be used by common people. Building mosquito attraction and killing apparatus solely based on natural resources of sunlight and water to perform functions of mosquito attraction and mosquito killing is the fundamental goal of the present invention. The followings are the specific goals of mosquito attraction apparatus and mosquito killing system. For mosquito attraction apparatus, sunlight and water are to be synthetically and complementarily utilized; the physical form of the apparatus is to be simple to be manufactured; and the physical form of the apparatus is to be ingenious to be used conveniently. For mosquito killing system, the system is to continuously perform mosquito killing function with the energy of sunlight; the system is to perform mosquito killing function during both daytime and nighttime or other sunlight insufficient conditions with the energy of sunlight; and the mosquito killing system is to be integrated with the mosquito attraction apparatus to form a complete mosquito attraction and killing system that is solely based on natural resources of sunlight and water to perform functions of mosquito attraction and mosquito killing and is conveniently used and manufactured.
The present invention includes two parts of a complete mosquito attraction and killing system. The first part is sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus. The second part is energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system. The combination of the first part and the second part of the invention forms a complete mosquito attraction and killing system that solely utilizes natural resources of sunlight and water to perform its functions of mosquito attraction and mosquito killing.
The sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus comprises two major parts. For the convenience of description, the first major part of the sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus is called multi-function solar utilizer and the second major part of the sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus is called standing water container.
The multi-function solar utilizer has three basic characteristics in structure and material. The first characteristic is that the lower part of the multi-function solar utilizer is capable of containing liquid, such as water. The second characteristic is that on the upper part of the multi-function solar utilizer, there are a number of small holes which are channels to release both inner gaseous molecules and inner infrared radiation to the outside of the multi-function solar utilizer. The third characteristic is that the outer surface of the multi-function solar utilizer is of dark color, such as black.
The standing water container has one basic characteristic in structure and material. The characteristic is that the wall of the standing water container is transparent so that upper surface of contained water can be seen from outside. The transparent wall of the standing water container does not allow mosquitoes to directly contact with the contained water.
The multi-function solar utilizer and the standing water container are connected together to form the sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus. The preferred, but not limited, physical form of the sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus combined by the above two major parts is a column with the multi-function solar utilizer as the upper part and the standing water container as the lower part.
The mosquito attraction apparatus performs the following six functions of mosquito attraction.
1. The multi-function solar utilizer transforms sunlight into infrared radiation, which is released through the small holes, with temperature characteristic of human beings and birds to attract mosquitoes.
2. The multi-function solar utilizer transforms sunlight into infrared radiation, which is released through the small holes, with spectrum characteristic of water to attract mosquitoes.
3. The multi-function solar utilizer utilizes sunlight to produce gaseous state water, which is released through the small holes, to attract mosquitoes.
4. The multi-function solar utilizer utilizes sunlight to create a warm object in the seasons of early spring and late fall to attract mosquitoes.
5. The multi-function solar utilizer utilizes sunlight to spread optional chemical attractant molecules, which are released through the small holes, to attract mosquitoes.
6. The standing water container visually exposes water to the outside to attract mosquitoes.
Besides the individual effect of each mosquito attraction function above, the synthetic effect of multiple factor interaction on the mosquito is more effective and efficient than the simple summation of the individual effect. Synthetic action on mosquito is one of the major advantages of the sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus.
The process and mechanism of operation of the mosquito attraction apparatus are described as the followings.
Water is added into the multi-function solar utilizer and the standing water container. In accordance with thermodynamics in physics, both inside the multi-function solar utilizer and the standing water container, water exists in both liquid state and gaseous state, and water in liquid state and water in gaseous state reach a corresponding point on the equilibrium curve of phase of water under certain temperature and certain pressure. The emphasis of the two states of water is because water in gaseous state plays an important role in the mechanism of the functions of the present mosquito attraction apparatus. In the multi-function solar utilizer, because the small holes on the upper part of the multi-function solar utilizer allow water passing through, the maximum amount of water in liquid state inside the multi-function solar utilizer is controlled by the height of the small holes at the lowest height level. Water in liquid state occupies lower part of space of the multi-function solar utilizer. Water in gaseous state and other components of air occupy the upper part of space of the multi-function solar utilizer. In the standing water container, the water in liquid state occupies lower part space of the standing water container so that the upper surface of the water in liquid state can be seen from outside. Water in gaseous state and other components of air occupy the upper part of space of the standing water container. The sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus, which is inside a complete mosquito attraction and killing system, is placed at a location where direct sunlight could be received.
When the multi-function solar utilizer is in sunlight, the multi-function solar utilizer absorbs solar energy with high efficiency due to the darkness of its outer surface. Because dark color material has high sunlight absorbing efficiency, the multi-function solar utilizer can absorb significantly greater amount of solar energy than common objects in its environment do when it is under direct sunlight. The absorbed solar energy will be transformed into infrared radiation to attract mosquitoes. The absorbed solar energy will also be used to evaporate water and other optional chemical attractant inside the multi-function solar utilizer to attract mosquitoes.
Water in the multi-function solar utilizer regulates the temperature and the associated total radiation power of infrared of the multi-function solar utilizer. The water in the multi-function solar utilizer regulates the temperature and the associated total radiation power of infrared in the following ways. First, because water has very high specific heat, it functions as an energy reservoir to control the speed of temperature change. The specific heat of water is the highest among common substances. The specific heat of water is around eight times of that of steel and five times of that of aluminum. Therefore, utilizing water to control speed of temperature change is very effective and very economical. When the multi-function solar utilizer is under direct sunlight, the water temperature slowly increases. When the multi-function solar utilizer is not under direct sunlight or is in the time of night, the water temperature slowly decreases. Second, when temperature of the water increases, due to the move of the equilibrium point of water, gaseous state water increases, this evaporation process of water consumes large amount of absorbed solar energy and therefore is a force against the temperature increase. This regulation lets temperature of water not too high under direct sunlight and not too low without direct sunlight. Therefore, the temperature of water and the associated total radiation power of infrared of water can be kept in a range for a long time. This range of temperature and associated total radiation power of infrared is used to attract mosquitoes. The water is inside the multi-function solar utilizer when the apparatus is in operation. Therefore, this process of regulation of temperature and associated total radiation power of infrared by water is a self-regulated process of the present mosquito attraction apparatus.
The small holes on the upper part of the multi-function solar utilizer directly release specific infrared radiated by liquid state water and gaseous state water and spread gaseous state water to attract mosquitoes.
Infrared directly radiated from the small holes has two important effects. First, it shows an infrared radiation source with attractive temperature. Second, it shows an infrared radiation source with spectrum characteristic of water.
Infrared radiation has two fundamental characteristics. The first fundamental characteristic is its temperature characteristic. The second characteristic is its spectrum characteristic. All objects in environment radiate infrared with these two characteristics. Mosquitoes are infrared sensitive. Both of the two fundamental characteristics of infrared are utilized to stimulate infrared sensitive mosquitoes.
Infrared radiation with a temperature characteristic in the range of temperature of human beings and birds is utilized to attract mosquitoes that intend to bite human beings and birds. Because the dark color outer surface of the multi-function solar utilizer absorbs sunlight with high efficiency, its inner temperature is significantly higher than its environment temperature. Because of the temperature regulation effect of water discussed above, the temperature of the water inside the multi-function solar utilizer will be in the range that shows temperature characteristic of human beings and birds for a significantly long time after absorbing sunlight. In the aspect of utilization of infrared temperature characteristic, the multi-function solar utilizer transforms sunlight into the infrared radiation with temperature characteristic similar to that of human beings and birds and radiates the infrared through the small holes to attract mosquitoes that intend to bite human beings and birds.
Infrared radiation with a temperature characteristic of attractive hiding place for mosquitoes in the seasons of early spring and late fall is utilized to attract mosquitoes that intend to hide in a warm place in the environment of low temperature of early spring and late fall. During the seasons of early spring and late fall, environmental temperature sometimes is in the high range that allows mosquitoes to be active and sometimes is in the low range that can kill mosquitoes. When environmental temperature is in the low range, mosquitoes intend to find and hide in a place that is warmer than the environment. Because the dark color outer surface of the multi-function solar utilizer absorbs sunlight with high efficiency, the temperature of the body of the multi-function solar utilizer and the water inside is significantly higher than that of the environment. Because of the high specific heat of the water inside, the multi-function solar utilizer can keep its temperature higher than that of the environment for significant long time. Therefore, in another aspect of utilization of infrared temperature characteristic, the multi-function solar utilizer transforms sunlight into the infrared radiation with temperature characteristic of warm place to attract mosquitoes that intend to search a warm place when environment temperature is dangerously low for mosquitoes.
Infrared radiation with spectrum characteristic of water is utilized to attract mosquitoes that intend to lay their eggs in water. Infrared radiated by gaseous state water and liquid state water radiates from the small holes to shows unique infrared spectrum characteristic of water. The infrared radiation with unique infrared spectrum characteristic of water is to act on infrared sensitive mosquitoes to show the existence of water. In the aspect of utilization of infrared spectrum characteristic, the multi-function solar utilizer transforms sunlight into the infrared radiation with spectrum characteristic of water and radiates the infrared through the small holes to attract mosquitoes that intend to search water to lay eggs.
The multi-function solar utilizer also utilizes sunlight to spread gaseous state water and optional chemical attractant gaseous state molecules through the small holes to the local space surrounding the multi-function solar utilizer to attract mosquitoes.
When the body of the multi-function solar utilizer absorbs sunlight, the inside temperature increases. With the increase of the inside temperature, the amount of gaseous state water increases due to the move of the corresponding point on the equilibrium curve of phase of water. The small holes release the gaseous state water to the outside. The gaseous state water shows mosquitoes the existence of water to attract mosquitoes that intend to search water to lay eggs.
Optionally, chemical attractant can be added into the water inside the multi-function solar utilizer. With the increase of the inside temperature of the multi-function solar utilizer due to the absorption of sunlight, the amount of chemical attractant in gaseous state increases in accordance with the move of corresponding point on the equilibrium curve of the phase of the chemical attractant solution. The small holes release the gaseous state chemical attractant to the outside. The gaseous state chemical attractant attracts mosquitoes.
The above discussions about the process and mechanism of the multi-function solar utilizer show that the multi-function solar utilizer utilizes sunlight to attract mosquitoes in variety of ways.
Connected with the multi-function solar utilizer, the standing water container attracts mosquitoes by utilization of water in a way of direct visual attraction.
The wall of the standing water container is transparent. The transparent wall of the standing water container does not allow mosquitoes to directly contact with the container water. In operation, the inner space of the standing water container should be partially occupied by water to clearly show the existence of water. Besides the signals from the infrared radiation and the gaseous state water that are released from the small holes of the multi-function solar utilizer, the standing water container sends a visual image of water to attract mosquitoes that intend to lay their eggs in water. Because of the blockage action of the wall, the present mosquito attraction apparatus ensures that mosquitoes cannot lay eggs in the water even when mosquitoes accidentally penetrate the mosquito killing system surrounding the mosquito attraction apparatus.
The functions of the multi-function solar utilizer and the standing water container are synthetic and complementary. In the aspect of electromagnetic wave spectrum of water, the multi-function solar utilizer uses infrared rays to show the existence of water and the standing water container uses visible rays to show the existence of water. In the aspect of state of water, the multi-function solar utilizer uses sensible water molecules of gaseous state water to show the existence of water and the standing water container uses visible water surface of liquid state water to show the existence of water. In the aspect of temperature of water, the multi-function solar utilizer uses temperature range of human beings and birds and the standing water container uses temperature range of its environment. In the aspect of structure and material, the multi-function solar utilizer is dark and the standing water container is transparent. The combination of the functions of the two parts lets the present mosquito attraction apparatus utilize sunlight and water to attract mosquitoes with more effectiveness and more efficiency.
To form a mosquito control system that solely uses natural resources of sunlight and water to attract and kill mosquitoes, the present invention also provide an energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system to kill mosquitoes by solely using natural resource of sunlight in the time of both day and night and in variety of weather conditions with both sufficient and insufficient sunlight.
The energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system comprises: (1) a group of solar cells to transform sunlight to electricity of direct current; (2) a group of rechargeable batteries to store energy of the electricity from the group of solar cells and to release electricity of direct current to electronic circuit of the system; (3) an electronic switch to execute a periodic control process to let the system alternatively in state of electricity supply with a certain time duration and state of electricity non-supply with a certain time duration in a pattern of period; (4) an electronic oscillator to transform the direct current from the group of rechargeable batteries and the group of solar cells into oscillating current; (5) an voltage step-up transformer to transform low voltage input of the oscillating current into high voltage output; (6) a one-way electronic circuit to generate one direction movement of electric charge; (7) a high voltage electric charge storage device to accumulate high voltage electric charge during the time of electricity supply and to keep the accumulated high voltage electric charge during the time of electricity non-supply; (8) an metal grid connected with the high voltage electric charge storage device to discharge the high voltage electric charge through bodies of mosquitoes.
To kill mosquitoes with electric charge, electric grid needs certain amount of high voltage electric charge. The voltage is commonly above 600 volts. A group of solar cells with a small size of a few square inches cannot provide required high voltage. The group of solar cells of a few square inches can only provide direct current with low voltage of a few volts. An electronic circuit is needed to transform the low voltage direct current into high voltage electric charge. However, the electronic circuit needs certain conditions in a certain instant power input level, a certain instant voltage input level, and a certain instant current input level to perform its function of transforming the low voltage direct current to high voltage electric charge.
To meet the requirement of the electronic circuit for the instant power input level, the instant voltage input level, and the instant current input level, a natural choice is to increase the total size of the group of solar cells that supplies electricity for the electronic circuit. However, this approach causes three problems. The first problem is that this approach results in increase of cost of the system due to high cost of solar cell. The second problem is that this approach cannot provide electricity during time of night and other time of insufficient sunlight. The third problem is that large size of the group of solar cells limits the options of physical form of the whole mosquito attraction and killing system. The present energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system uses another approach.
This approach is based on two characteristic facts. The two characteristic facts are that mosquitoes touch the electric grid of the mosquito killing system in a random way and mosquitoes touch the electric grid of the mosquito killing system in a relatively low time rate in most of places, especially in most of yards of people""s houses. The time rate here is defined as, for a period of time, times of mosquito touching the grid divided by the length of the time. For example, the time rate could be 30 times per hour. The low time rate means that mosquitoes do not touch the electric grid a few times in every second in average. Because mosquitoes touch the electric grid in a random way, the mosquito killing system should be kept in a mosquito killing ready status. In another aspect, because mosquitoes touch the electric grid in a low time rate, the consumption of high voltage electric charge is low.
The present energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system uses one periodic control process and two energy reservoirs to let the power source of the system meet the requirement for instant power input level, instant voltage input level, and instant current input level of the electronic circuit of the system. The control process and the structure of the system also let the energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system possess the characteristic of performing the function of mosquito killing during both daytime and nighttime.
The periodic control process is of letting the mosquito killing system alternatively in electricity supply state with a time duration named T(s) and in electricity non-supply state with a time duration named T(n).
The first energy reservoir is a group of rechargeable batteries. When the mosquito killing system is in the electricity non-supply time, the group of rechargeable batteries receives and reserves the electric energy from the group of solar cells. When the mosquito killing system is in the electricity supply time, the group of rechargeable batteries releases the accumulated electric energy. During the state of electricity supply, both the group of solar cells and the group of rechargeable batteries provide electric energy to the electronic circuit.
The second energy reservoir is a high voltage electric charge storage device, such as a capacitor, connected with a one-way electronic circuit. When the mosquito killing system is in the electricity supply state, the high voltage electric charge storage device receives and reserves the high voltage electric charge. When the mosquito killing system is in the electricity non-supply time, the high voltage electric charge storage device reserves the high voltage electric charge. The high voltage electric charge storage device accumulates and reserves the high electric charge until a mosquito touches the electric grid to trigger an electric discharge.
When the mosquito killing system is in the electricity supply state, the electric current from the group of solar cells and the group of rechargeable batteries flows through the electronic switch to supply electric power for the electronic circuit of the system. When the mosquito killing system is in the electricity non-supply state, the electric current from the group of solar cells and the group of rechargeable batteries cannot flow through the electronic switch to supply electric power for the electronic circuit of the system, and the electric energy generated by the group of solar cells reserves in the group of rechargeable batteries. In the process of letting the mosquito killing system alternatively be in electricity supply state and electricity non-supply state, when the ratio of the time duration T(n) of electricity non-supply to the time duration T(s) of electricity supply increases, the electric energy reserved in the group of rechargeable batteries increases. By increasing the ratio of time duration T(n) of electricity non-supply to time duration T(s) of electricity supply, the mosquito killing system obtains the capability of killing mosquitoes at the time of night and at other time of insufficient sunlight due to the increase of reserved energy in the group of rechargeable batteries.
To make the supply time of the low voltage direct current from the group of rechargeable batteries as long as possible, the time duration T(s) of electricity supply should be as short as possible, and the ratio of time duration T(n) of electricity non-supply to time duration T(s) of electricity supply should be as large as possible. To make discharge times of high voltage electric charge on the high voltage electric charge storage device to kill mosquitoes as large as possible, the time length of the period of the control process should be as small as possible.
The energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system provides a solution for: (1) allowing the sunlight powered mosquito killing system to continuously stay in mosquito killing status during both daytime and nighttime; (2) allowing total size of the group of solar cells of the sunlight powered system to be significantly small. The solution realizes the goal of utilizing sunlight economically, effectively and efficiently.
Combining the sunlight and water utilized compound mosquito attraction apparatus and the energy efficient sunlight powered mosquito killing system, a complete mosquito attraction and killing system, which is solely uses natural resources of sunlight and water to attract and kill mosquitoes, is obtained.
This mosquito attraction and killing system can solely use natural resources of sunlight and water to attract and kill mosquitoes and can continuously perform its functions of mosquito attraction and mosquito killing during both daytime and nighttime.